Water-purifying apparatus.



PATENTED MAR. 12, 1907.

J. C. W. GRETH.

WATER PURIFYING APPARATUS.

APPLIQATION FILED-00T. 22, 1903.

n J W//Ib4 -I UNITED sTArIasPA'rEN T OFFICE.-

JOHN o. W. GRETH, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, AssIGNOR To WM. B.

SOAIFE a SONS COMPANY, OF PI'rrsBURe PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORA- "TION OF NEW JERSEY.'

wATEn-PURIPYING APPARATUS.-

Specification of Letters Patent.

I'atented March 12, 1907.

Application filed October 22, 1903-. Serial No. 178.084.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN C. WM. GRETH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and `State 5 of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new tinuous current so as to avoid stagnant water i at any point and at the same time provide for the removal of precipitated sediment at various points; to provide means for securing a uniform and thorough admixture of neutralizing and precipitating agents for the purpose of agg omerating and removing impurities; to provide means for thoroughly and uniformly mixing milk of lime etc. in the Water during a regulated `flow through the apparatus; to provide a superior means for settling and removingthe sediment from the water, an eflicient form of iilter, and to generally improve the structure and operation of water purifying apparatus.

The above objects, together with other advantages which will hereinafter appear, I attain b means ofthe construction illustrated in pre erred form in the accompanying drawing, in which- 'Figure 1 is a vertical central section through the entire apparatus, and

Figure 2 is a horizontal cross section taken .through the saturating tank e.

The apparatus is designed more particu-l larl for use in the operation of commingling the water a denite quantity of lime A l hydrate for the purpose of taking out carbon dloxide, precipitating bi-carbonates, etc., and causing t Akinds of im urities in the Water, then neutralizing an precipitating various other impurities by the admixture of some reagent, and finally settling the water in a settlin tank and passing it through a filter. In suc apparatus it is foundto be of the highest importance that the hydrate of lime formed by slaking caustic lime shall be very homogenee agglomeration of several4 ously mixed.y For thislpu ose it willbe seen in the accompanying rawing. that I rovide the distributing tank aand a pipe eading to the stirring box b, which is ro- A vided with some mechanical means suc as the rotating vane c for4 the purpose of slaking, and mixing the cream of lime, which'is at intervals, as re' uired, passed by means of the pipe d into t e tank e, emptying near the ottomv of the same. A pi e from the tank a having a distributing out et empties into the tank e at a Oint beneat the cream of v lime introduced rom tank b, and by means of the partitions g and g the water is caused to ilow first upward, carrying up cream of llme `with it, thendownward, then u ward again,

to the outletthrough the pipe y. It will be seen that by thisV rovision for the upward current of water om the outlet f, rising through the lime, and the alternate inversions of the iiow through the tank, I attain a very perfect and a very uniform comnnngling of the water and lime to form the saturated hydrate which is" subsequently to be used for the purposeshereinafter described.

The Water pipe leading into the saturating tank e being regulated, the supply of hydrate may be Whatever desired while the tank a1- Ways maintains a fully saturated solutlon, whatever may bethe rate of the liow. The discharge through the pipe j is preferably carriedinto a funnel and enters the stream of raw water as it enters through the p1pe 't coming directly or indirectly from the `d1s tributing tank a. This causes the hydrate of lime and the water to descend together inl `ward, in turn, making several reverse vertical changes in the course of flow, causing a very thorough mixing of the hydrate with the water for the purpose of (precipitating certain bi-carbonates by the hy rate of lime, or forming carbonates with any free carbomc acid, or removing various bacteria and imurities in the water, as will be understood y those familiar with the art. struction of the tanks prevents the possibility of any portion of the water remaining quiescent or stagnant and at the same' time, while there is a continuous llow of the current, the precipitates may be discharged as The conl v they settle in the bottom of the tank through .the discharge pipe Under some condi-v toins, where heat-will facilitate or hasten the chemical action, I. employ the heater` j', which may be introduced -in the apparatus somewhere between the distributing tank a, and the tank h.

Though some impurities may be agglomerated and .precipitated by means of the excess ofn the ligne overfthat required to precipitate the bi-carbonates, etc., and some of the acids may be destroyed by the calcium hydrate, in other cases lit is generally necessary to use a separate reagent for theprecipitation of various matters, and forv this purpose the tank 7c is provided. .The stream of water overflowing from tank. h. enters into tank 7c as shown, and is met at the inlet by a stream of. the. required chemical, `which may be for example, sodium carbonate orbarium hy# '.drate, or some other reagent as desired. This is. .mixed :inf the .boxb', and flows-into regulating tank'l l', which is maintained at a uniform, head-by means of a com-mon float and valve l" as shown, and. isedischarged as required into the chemical tank by .pipe L which-empties into 'a funnel and comes directly ,into .the incoming' stream .of water. The mixed liquidsl are carried 'downward together and inf this tank also the revision is made for the vvertically inverse ow of current forthe purposes heretofore described, and. the .water is finally overflowed into the settling tank m. The -.bicarbonates 7 will sometimes themselves form insoluble comounds with suchsubstances as oils, and the inverse currents are necessary to commingle such matter .in the solution. ;The substances precipitated may be. drawn off through the outlets/w. y

.For the purpose of finally-removing whatever precipitated .substances may remain, the settlin .tank lml is provided with a par-tition viwhich -directs the current of incoming waterffdownwards against. the :inclined bottom lrit-.which ends in an outlet o to discharge the sediment.' They iiow through this' settling tankwill be slow, and a final: urificationvmay beprovidedby means o iilter g which is placed inside of the partition p and receives water Iby overiiow thereof. The levelof the water in this tank, "In, yw'ill be conveniently regulated. by .means of a float ty which -is connected to the valve u in the pipe supplying may be regulated to suit the 'desired yield of urified water. .The water fiowing into lter g passes through several'strata ,of sand or the like and out through the pipe 1'. For the urpose of cleaning' this -iilter l provide the ouble set of pipes lin such awayas to enable a reversal of the current flowing through the filter g in order to clean the same, as will be-clearl understood.

- It -wil be observed that this apparatus th .distributing tank a.' This combines the following .features which are found to be necessary o r the provision o f a continuously flowingwater purifying apparatus which allows of pro er precipitation lof the sediments therein an prevents the stagnation of the water at anyv point of the fiow. The arrangement of the partitions in the various tanks, prevents the separation of the lighter and the heavier parts ofthe liquid mixture because the current that sweeps under the partitions g carries up within `a narrow space the whole of the liquid. The arrangement of i he tank for making the saturated hydrate of lime is described and claimed 1n myl co-pending .Patent No. 753,880,

issued March 8, 1904. Thevintroduction of thehydratelof; lime through .the ipe j..im.

mediately :at the'. entranceof t e stream of water from the distributing tank a causes the two liquids to come together at the point in the flow `when there 1s the greatest amount'of agitation and therefore the .most

thorough mixing 'of the same, and the-.leading of this intermixture immediately downward prevents the settling of theheavie'r liquid through the Alighter and insures a thorough comnnngling of the two,ingredients. The same 'feature is shown .in the tank- 7c which is for the urpose of :mixing the-reagent forf throwing own variouswprecipitatesof im ure matter. By ,means of the partition o t e water entering into the settling tank is immediately led to thebottom of the same and after passing under the partition is .alowed full and free expansion so as o deaden the current ofwater and cause the greatest possible eiiicienc'y ,in the matter Vofsettling sediment, while the introductionof the water into the filter by .overflow over the vpartition will additionallyfassist in preventing the caring of any great amount of sediment into the Jlter. Other advantages of this device willreadily occur to those familiarfwith.l the art. v

Having thus described; my. invention and illustrated its use,` what: I 'claim as new, .and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the followinIg:

1. n'water/purifying apparatus'the combination of `a distributing tank, a pair of y mixing tanks for chemicals, a hydrate saturating tank, a treatment tank,l a chemical tank and a settling tank, each of said tanks beinflr provided with means for causing verticaly reverse flow therethrough, and an automatic regulator for the water level in the settling tank 2. In water purifying apparatus the comt bination of a lime saturating tank, a lime treatment tank, a soda treatment tank, and a settling and filterin tank, each of said tanks feeding the .next y overflow, and having means to causevertically reverse iiow therethrough, and means to introduce the lime and soda into each of the treatment roo IIO

tanks directly in the 'inflowing stream of si ed my name in the presence of the two Watlnf out lor' colllitxct With the gir, a suplly su scribed Witnesses. tan or t1e W 0 e system an .means or regulating the suply automatically by the JOHN C' W GRETH'* 5 water level in sai settling tank, substan- Witnesses:

tially'as described. F. W. H. CLAY,

In testinony whereof I have hereunder CHAS. H. EBERT. 

